Win-win results for Reed Franchise Partnerships’ collaboration with Dubai recruitment firm
A Dubai recruitment firm was searching for a partner to elevate its existing business – one that could offer a global franchise partnership. Who could provide such a service? Tasked with the challenge, Gaurav Tewari – now Location Head at Reed Middle East – had a few key things on his wish list: namely, an internationally-recognised brand with European connections that could add value to his company’s established business. He explained: “We felt Reed, being the UK’s number one specialist recruitment firm, fulfilled our requirement of having a strong European connection.”
As an established brand in the Middle East, Reed has quickly become a trusted brand – synonymous with excellent service. According to Gaurav, people in the region “have an understanding of Reed, have dealt with or heard of Reed and are happy to know they're back in the Middle East” – and in this case, it appears heritage plays an important role too: “When you have aspirations to do bigger things with firms that have a wider reach, that's when you would want to be a part of an institution like Reed, and take advantage of their 60 years of history.”
Xavier Krasnicki, RFP’s Marketing Manager, said: “Gaurav’s firm was an existing recruitment business, so we worked with them on all the operational, logistical, and digital aspects of transferring over to us. We agreed to project plan and executed on that plan.
“The franchisees have their own business objectives. It's their business, so they set their objectives, and our role is to help them achieve them.”
Personal relationships also played a part and, in this instance, Gaurav had worked with Rob Barklamb, RFP’s International Franchise Director in the past. Gaurav continued: “Rob was pretty essential in us joining Reed Franchise Partnerships (RFP) because we've known him for years and were impressed by his work – the way he created RFP was kind of exciting for us and we saw huge promise.”
One of the challenges Gaurav’s team felt they had was raising awareness of their new Reed brand in the Middle East. Our marketing team advised them that the most effective way to reach targeted audiences was through a LinkedIn campaign, and worked with them to create the marketing collateral, and identified and agreed on target audiences. Xavier said: “The campaign had over 1000 clicks from HR and TA decision makers, which generated more traffic to the website and awareness for the company – so it’s certainly been successful.
“As well as raising online awareness of Reed in the Middle East, RFP is focussed on driving additional revenue to its partners. Our franchise partners are looking for a return on their investment” Xavier continued. “They are looking for value from us, and one of the ways we can provide that is by opening opportunities for split-fee business. In this case, Reed had a UK client who needed somebody in Dubai. We put them in touch with Gaurav and they made a split-fee business that generated income for both offices and improved the relationship of both with the client.”
Gaurav said of the opportunity: “Although it presented a new type of work for our team – shipping logistics – we were thrilled to be asked. Two weeks later the client asked for our support in finding them a couple of candidates. Within two days we gave them a shortlist, and from those, two were interviewed and one was hired.”
With Gaurav’s initial brief to RFP outlining the need for a partnership that would generate significant cross-border searches, particularly from the UK, this early success confirmed he had made the right decision. “When we talk about Reed to prospective and existing clients, the responses have been positive,” he said. “And I think that alone goes a long way – it may not lead to immediate results, but the brand really makes an impact.”
The transformation from an independent recruitment agency to a global player, supported by Reed Franchise Partnerships, has raised more than just the profile of Gaurav’s firm. Renewed confidence in the potential of their business, plus smoother working processes, have created excitement for the future. Gaurav said: “I had always wanted us to be a streamlined office, and to work on an effective ATS back-end system. We did not have that prior to joining Reed.
“It gave me a lot of motivation that within the first three months of our partnership, we had a Reed UK office reaching out to us with a cross-border connection. I see a lot of potential in the future – our reach through the website has been immense.”
Having initially considered going it alone with his venture, Gaurav is now glad to have RFP’s support in the shape of “a strong global name” supporting them. He concluded: “Overall, I feel the potential with Reed is going to be huge.”
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